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Medium Sized companies struggle with B2B demand generation too
| Guest post by: Jeff Ogden |
Article Overview: Previously we looked at the results of a survey by Act-On Software, which found that large companies (500 employees or more) were struggling with B2B demand generation. The survey showed that the vast majority were doing only “Top of Funnel” activities, like email campaigns and events – which drive raw, unqualified leads. Few were doing lead nurturing and almost none were doing lead scoring.
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Free Download - Marketing Made Simple TV is looking for a few good sponsors By Jeff Ogden |
Medium Sized companies struggle with B2B demand generation too
B2B Lead Generation |Mid sized companies struggle
Now I’d like to go down a bit in size – 250 to 500 employees – where Act-On has more data. Would they do better?
We see our results and the answer is No. Medium sized companies also struggle with B2B lead generation.
The workhorse tactic for most companies is email marketing. (How many
times can we really email without them opting out?) Email is easy,
cheap and quick, but so is it for all your competitors. Add up all the
emails and you quickly exhaust your audience. (We invite you to download
the free white paper at Find New Customers, Moving from Transactional to Conversational Email Marketing.)
We also have trade shows and advertising. David Applebaum, CMO told me “Jeff,
we’ve been doing these surveys since last December and the data never
changes, except more are doing social media. But they’re STILL not doing
important mid-funnel activities like lead nurturing and scoring.”
Why does this problem persist? I think you’ll find the answer is in this post “The Problem with Over-Reliance on Junior Marketing Folks.”
Young and inexperience marketing managers can blast out emails and
create product brochures. But they lack the sophisticated knowledge and
skill to craft Problem to Solution stories (Lead Nurturing) or identify
buying behaviors (Lead Scoring).
What happens when you leave out mid-funnel activities?
What we don’t have are the kind of activities that turn raw leads into qualified sales opportunities, like lead nurturing and scoring.The
data is ugly – only about 16% of raw leads turn out to be sales
opportunities and Sales only follows up with about 1 out of 5 – because they quickly grow frustrated talking to unqualified opportunities. (But 8 of 10 of those they didn’t contact buy within 2 years) The clear take-away here is this:
If more companies embraced lead nurturing and scoring, companies could dramatically improve revenue results.
Want to learn about lead nurturing? Then check out our Lead Nurturing and Scoring service.
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About the Author: Jeff Ogden RSS for Jeff's articles - Visit Jeff's website With 8 out of 10 companies saying the lack of quality sales leads is their biggest problem, they need help. SiriusDecisions also found that fewer than 1 out of 10 companies that implement lead management software went beyond the basics. They need help. We help companies implement world class lead generation programs. Companies need quality sales leads, so they need sales lead generation programs including social media marketing. They need to implement lead nurturing programs. We are considered one of the best leads generation companies in business today. Click here to visit Jeff's website   7 Keys to B2B Marketing Succes Definitive Guide Making Quota 7 Keys to Lead Nurturing How to Find New Customers |
Related Forum Posts
Re: Kevin's Case Study #6 - Marketing an information resource?
- Hi Sebastien,
I'm wondering about two things:
1) What is your current revenue model?
2) Why would franchise owners choose to sign up with you over the lead generation companies? Is there some kind of quality control certification that you could award them to say that they are a World Franchising certified franchise? I'm not clear on what benefits a company seeking to franchise would really get from your site beyond the lead generation component.
Two hats - startup sales mentor and Message Slinger
- Hello all,
As a consultant, my focus is on helping companies in emerging companies jump start their revenue generation.
As the CEO of Message Slinger, I try and aid in developing and offering the world's best online and e-mail marketing system,
Please feel free to reach out and contact me about anything and everything, my third venture is helping anyone I can.
All the best,
Karl
Re: Kevin's Case Study #6 - Marketing an information resource?
- [quote="Evan":3ndb7usp]Hi Sebastien,
I'm wondering about two things:
1) What is your current revenue model?
2) Why would franchise owners choose to sign up with you over the lead generation companies? Is there some kind of quality control certification that you could award them to say that they are a World Franchising certified franchise? I'm not clear on what benefits a company seeking to franchise would really get from your site beyond the lead generation component.[/quote:3ndb7usp]
Hello Evan,
1. We currently make money from what you may call lead generation. Franchisors pay us a fee to be on our websites and in our top seller franchise guides. We also generate money from other avenue; mostly by selling hard-to-get information about franchising (UFOCs, etc...)
2. That's exactly what I'm trying to answer.... I want to get away from the lead generation perception. I want to be seen as a good information resource, which we are. I have started to take the association angle and I am now looking to provide great benefits to our Members (used to be called clients). I think I'm on the right way. I made a lot of progress the last couple days.
Re: Kevin's Case Study #6 - Marketing an information resource?
- Hey Sebastian,
Congrats are starting to think beyond whats currently being done. My question is why do you want to get away from lead generation if that is where you make your money. What if you just because THE SOURCE for lead generation and high value content/information? Then you'd get more business because franchisors would HAVE to be listed with you....
J
Re: Service Or Product?
- Hi Evan,
A late response to your question but I thought I'd throw in my 2 cents worth as it's still a great topic.
I like services personally as a business model but products would work as well. It all depends on the demand for the product. I learned a long time ago that if the demand out weighs the supply, whether it be a service or a product, the potential for success is far greater. When consumers or businesses are looking for what you're selling, the sale is that much easier and the risk is that much lower.
Think about businesses that never have to advertise and just have websites and yellow page listings to be found. There is normally such a demand for their product or service that there's no need to advertise to find business as their customers will find them. These businesses do exist and if you think long and hard about it, you'll come up with a few that dispite the economy, spend next to nothing on advertising.
So, product or service... who cares... demand and finding a niche is what matters and either or could be very successfull.
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